Dr. Tim Mullican
timullic@dwu.edu
Website - myweb.dwu.edu/timullic

Tim has taught at Dakota Wesleyan University since 1989. He is extremely proud of the hundreds of nurses and allied-health professionals that have received their education at DWU. His research expertise is mainly concerned with small mammal ecology and has published more than 10 articles in professional journals.

In 1992, he discovered a population of Merriam’s shrews in Butte Co., which was the first time it had been recorded in South Dakota. Tim’s main hobbies are building custom-made muzzleloaders, hunting with blackpowder rifles, and playing with Andy, his yellow lab.

Anthony B. Cole, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry

Dr. Cole joined the DWU community in the Fall of 2004. His research involves trying to understand the environmental and genetic factors that influence the pathogenicity and host range of plant viruses. As a graduate student in Dr. James Schoelz’s lab at the University of Missouri in Columbia, he found that the hypersensitive response, HR, of Nicotiana edwardsonii to Cauliflower mosaic virus, CaMV, can be genetically separated into resistance and necrosis traits that are derived from two different plant species: resistance from N. glutinosa and necrosis from N. clevelandii. (N. edwardsonii is a solanaceous plant that originated from a cross between N. glutinosa and N. clevelandii.)

Dr. Cole has also shown that the gene for resistance to CaMV in N. edwardsonii segregates independently of the N gene which conditions resistance to Tobacco mosaic virus, TMV, in N. glutinosa. Furthermore, they were able to show that the resistance to TMV in N. edwardsonii is temporally regulated with older plants being more resistant to TMV than younger plants.

Current research in Dr. Cole’s lab involves identifying a new TMV resistance gene in N. tabacum (tobacco) that, unlike the N gene, segregates recessively and lacks the HR observed in the classical N gene response to TMV infection. We are also attempting to characterize and isolate another TMV resistance gene from another Nicotiana species that is not temperature sensitive. The N gene can be inactivated at temperatures above 27°C. However, this gene is still fully active and confers resistance to TMV at temperatures above 32°C.

Courses taught at DWU
Biochemistry I and II
Introduction to Biochemistry
Genetics
Immunology
Molecular Biology and Cell Biology

After she finished her Ph.D., she accepted a position as a post-doctoral research fellow at University of Nebraska – Lincoln. There she led a project investigating the effects of insect herbivory on population dynamics of Canada thistles under varying environmental conditions. She joined the DWU biology department in 2007.
 

Julie Olson
(605)995-3034
julie.olson@k12.sd.us

Olson joined DWU in the summer of 1998 teaching biology and microbiology. She teaches microbiology during the summer and has taught human physiology, environmental science and general biology at DWU. Her main accomplishments include the development of the environmental science class and integrating technology into the science classroom for MHS.

She was awarded the National Assoc. of Biology Teachers Teacher of the Year award in 2005 and is a state finalist for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching. She is also on the board for the state of South Dakota’s Science on the Move mobile science lab helping develop curriculum and training teachers to utilize the resources available. Her main hobbies are TaeKwonDo, reading, and traveling.

Academic Degrees
B.A. in Biology, University of South Dakota
M.A. in Biology, University of South Dakota with graduate research on the effects of selenium on backbone development in Chinook Salmon at the National Fisheries Contaminant Research Center.

Dr. Robert Tatina
Professor Emeritus

Robert Tatina served as a leading faculty member at DWU from 1975 to 2007. A discussion with him was published in the Summer 2007 issue of the Wesleyan Today.